Listening

General medical training does not provide all of the skills that you need for this work. Listening to people is unquestionably the most important skill to develop. We might imagine that we physicians listen well and often. Instead, we use an “efficient listening style,” whereby we listen selectively to find a story that fits our diagnostic paradigm. Once we recognize an acceptable theory of disease we commonly cut short the conversation. Physicians interrupt their patients’ stories within an average of 30 seconds. To be effective in the physician champion role, listening will require a greater interest, a much greater investment of time and a realization that the dialogue itself can be therapeutic.